Far-right protesters shouting the Nazi-linked phrase “blood and soil” marched through the university’s Charlottesville campus on Friday night, the day before a large nationalist gathering was planned in the centre of the city. Charlottesville’s mayor, Mike Signer, said: “When I think of torches, I want to think of the Statue of Liberty. Saturday’s “unite the right” gathering is intended as a protest against the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee.